Contents

Cannavale was born and raised in Union City, New Jersey, the son of Isabel and Salvatore "Sal" Cannavale. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother is Cuban and moved to the U.S. in 1960.[1][2] He was raised Catholic and attended St. Michael's Catholic School, where he participated in a number of extracurricular activities, including being an altar boy and member of the chorus. When he was eight, Cannavale secured the plum role of the lisping boy, Winthrop, in his school's production of The Music Man and later played a gangster in Guys and Dolls, which cemented his love for performing. Cannavale's parents divorced when he was 13 and his mother moved the family to Puerto Rico. After two years in the American territory, they settled in Margate, Florida. Cannavale returned to New Jersey after barely eking out a high school diploma in the late 1980s from Coconut Creek High School, in order to be closer to New York, to launch his acting career.[3][4][5][6][7]

Since 2012, Cannavale has been dating actress Rose Byrne.[22] Cannavale and Byrne's first child, Rocco Robin Cannavale,[23] was born on February 1, 2016.[23][24] He and Byrne had their second child together, a son named Rafa, in November 2017.[25]